God
: "Are you asking me what He's like or are you asking me what He looks like? ... Well, honestly, that depends. ... On which version of the answer you want. My father is by far the most complicated entity you could ever imagine. He has so many sides to His personality –– practically all of which even I myself can't put into words, except two. On one hand, He's...well, He's kind of a cross between George Clooney and Halle Berry. So pretty He hurts your eyes. Not real tall. A touch of a belly. He's got a real sweet tooth. Uhh, loves peanut clusters. However, on the other hand, He's...mm, pretty much like any of you'd expect. Larger-than-life, gruff, bit of a sexist. But fair -- eminently fair. Overall, my friends, when it comes to my father, whom I love very much, the concept of names does not apply. Neither does the concept of gender. All there is, is what is...when you see Him for yourself." : —Oracle to the others, about God God, also known as The Creator, The Lord, The Big Guy, The Boss (by Angels), more generally addressed as Father (by all Angels and devout people), Dad (by Angels, generally by higher ranking angels, affectionately the Archangels and Oracle) and The Man Upstairs, is an all-supremely powerful and ancient primordial being who is widely known as the maker and ruler of the entire universe and the majority of things in it, including angels and humans. He is the father of angels and humans alike and is known for having created almost everything in existence: Heaven, the Angels, the entire Universe, the Turok-Hans, Purgatory, Souls, Humans, Hell, and Lucifer's Cage, and claims benevolent dominion over it. He is the all-powerful creator of the universe and all life on earth. God, Amara, Eve, and Death are arguably, by far, the most revered and most powerful entities in existence (as Oracle and the Archangels are more powerful than the other gods) in history and God is worshiped above all the other gods, with Death, Eve, and Amara as they only entities capable of matching, rivaling, or surpassing Gods power. At the end of time, He too will be supposedly reaped by Death. This is not confirmed though and details about it have not been either. God is also the older brother of Amara, Eve, and Death. Biography Early History Origins In the beginning, God existed for eternity since before creation alongside His three siblings: His brother the Pale Horseman Death and His sisters Eve and the Darkness Amara, before the creation of Angels, Men, or even the Universe itself. Like His siblings, God is ageless and uncreated, having always existed. He created the Angels to ease His loneliness and orchestrated to create the Earth and Man. Creation Angels and Heaven Sometime ago, possibly out of loneliness, God created his very first creation, the Original Seraphim Oracle. God then created the ethereal realm of Heaven as a dwelling place where He and His angels would reside and to call His home and kingdom. After some time, God created the Universe, but to do so, He had to sacrifice one of the only things He knew: His own kin, His sister Amara, the Darkness. He then created twelve other celestial beings of light called Seraphim Angels, which helped Him fight back the Darkness. He tricked her and sealed her away. Sometime later, whilst they all lived in harmony and peace, the other 12 Seraphs eventually started to have doubts about God and defied their Father, but God had Oracle kill them all. After that, God then made only the seven of the supreme breed of angels, celestial beings of light called Archangels: named, first Michael, then Lucifer, next Ariel, after that Uriel, in addition to Sariel, as well as Raphael, and finally Gabriel. After creating the Archangels, God then created Cherubs, Powers, Principalities, Malakhim, Dominions, Virtues, Thrones, and Gate Keepers. God created the Angels as His warriors and perfect beings, and resided with the celestials in Heaven. Very few of God's Angels, other than the Archangels, ever saw Him, receiving their orders from higher-ranking celestials respectively. The Angels and Archangels called God their father, and existed only to glorify Him. He then chose Oracle to train and teach the angels to be warriors, soldiers, attendants, messengers, and guardians. Turok-Hans and Purgatory God then created the first beasts ever, the Turok-Hans, which were among His early creations. But however, seeing the potential danger they could cause, God became concerned that their destructive hunger would destroy his other creations. So upon discovering they could seriously harm and, in rare cases, kill Angels, He had all his warrior Angels fight back the Turok-Hans, wagging a terrible war against them, at the end of which they beat the Turok-Hans and when only a handful of them remained, God created the dimension Purgatory and locked the Turok-Hans away inside to protect the rest of the universe from their hunger, which He created Purgatory just for that purpose. Mankind and Earth Soon after this, God also created the Earth, a paradise; it was implied by Lucifer that the Earth or at least its modern state was one of God's last creations. And after creating Earth, God soon created Humans to reside on the Earth. He created man and woman, both in His likeness and in His character, perfect and flawed harmoniously, but also different. As He made the Angels immortal, winged, celestial, and strong, he made the Humans mortal, legged, mundane, and weak. While He chose the mighty Angels to reside with Him in Heaven as His messengers and enforcers, He chose man to reside in paradise on Earth as His favored creation and children. According to Oracle, God personally assigned Gadreel to protect His cherished creations in the "garden". He then asked and commanded all the Angels to bow down to humanity as His greatest creations, and love them more than and present more compassion towards them than to Him. The Rebellion However, Lucifer soon became envious, as he was the favorite son of Heaven, and being full of pride he refused to bow to humanity for God and declared he saw that humans were broken, monstrous, flawed and murderous beings (both Death and Gabriel described this as essentially a "great big temper tantrum" as humanity had replaced Lucifer in the foremost of God's affections). Following the creation of humanity and faced with this situation, Lucifer became increasingly more prideful and rebelled. He convinced one-third of all of Heavens Host to rebel with him. Soon after, Lucifer went to Michael and asked him to stand with him, but Michael refused. Lucifer's rebelling and disobedience towards God and Heaven over God declaring humanity his favorite creation over angels continued to grow and worsen, and a great and bloody battle then ensued in Heaven where Angel warred against Angel. Michael and Lucifer fought in a cataclysmic battle until eventually, God caused the battle to cease by having the rebels, including Lucifer, cast out of Heaven. Under God's orders, Michael eventually casts Lucifer out of Heaven, and Lucifer sought to corrupt the humans to spite and/or prove to God that Lucifer was right. The Fall of Adam and Eve To protect the first humans from Lucifer, God stationed His most trusted angel, Gadreel, to protect the Garden of Eden and stop evil from entering and corrupting mankind, but Gadreel failed to stop Lucifer entering and infecting humankind with evil. Lucifer and Hell Out of anger against God, Lucifer somehow got past Gadreel and found a human woman; he corrupted, twisted, and manipulated her soul to create Lilith, the first demon, in his goals against humanity. Lucifer still managed to corrupt Lilith's parents Adam and Eve and thus taint humanity. Knowing that Lucifer was too dangerous for His creations, God then had Michael personally cast Lucifer into Hell, imprisoning Lucifer and the demons Lucifer had created in Hell as punishment for Lucifer's actions against Heaven, God and humanity; and God created Lucifer's Cage to hold him, a cage in Hell locked with mystical seals to hold and incapacitate Lucifer until the Apocalypse. Imprisoning Gadreel In sorrow, as punishment, God had Gadreel locked away in the darkest of Heaven's Dungeons for his failure; according to Oracle, this was heartbreaking for God. After the betrayal and fall of Lucifer, the failing and imprisonment of Gadreel, and the corruption and sinful existence of Mankind, Oracle, Gods oldest son, left Heaven for parts unknown, vanished and disappeared. Watching Over Humans Once humans started to populate the Earth, they grew sinful, and began to worship the Angels instead of God. Because of this, God ordered Michael, and presumably other angels, to wipe out mankind. A man named Noah built a bunker to shield him and other humans from the Angels. Noah and a few other humans survived the attack from God, and began to repopulate the Earth. God however then continued to watch over and protect all His creation and children against anything that might hope to corrupt or hurt it, although it is inferred throughout the series that He is miserable, as He feels guilt for letting Lucifer be corrupted and that very few can sympathize with His feelings, such as the angel Joshua, a fellow gardener. Though when talking to Michael in "Swan Song," Lucifer believes that, since God made everything, "He made me who I am. God wanted the Devil." The Series Pending. Personality : "Let's just say that...whatever I do...I do because I love you." A few conflicting accounts of God's personality have been presented in the course of the show. The first presents Him as a benevolent being. "He" was described as an authoritarian and was gruff over His assembly of angels, but "eminently fair" and just a bit of a sexist, according to Oracle. Metatron claims that he personally made God laugh twice. He could be looked upon as righteous. After Oracle falls into Lucifer's Cage, and the Apocalypse is averted, God is seen smiling, implying that He believes in/created free will and doesn't want to simply order things to be the way He wants; He hopes that the humans and angels will willingly choose to save themselves. Despite unwilling to intervene more, God is not entirely indifferent; He saved Rayne and Mia from Lucifer's presence, put them on a plane, resurrected Oracle, and granted all of them salvation in Heaven in spite of everything they had done, which was — according to Joshua — "more than he's intervened in a long time." Much like Death, it could be that God respects the natural order, and He's worried that if He intervenes the results could be catastrophic. The other view presents God as both irresponsible and neglectful. He abandoned the Turok-Hans in Purgatory rather than try and fix them, wipe them out of existence, or warn others of the danger they posed. Sometime after the Apocalypse was averted, He abandoned Heaven and the angels leaving an ill-prepared Michael in charge, but also a more than prepared Oracle in charge as well. He had Lucifer locked in a cage, but did not prevent demons from walking the Earth wrecking havoc. He created the Word of God tablets to help humanity, but left them lying around on Earth where anyone could get them nearly preventing the weakness of the Turok-Hans being revealed. Michael also claims that despite what the angels and the humans were told, God didn't care about humans as much as believed; according to him, God doesn't even know the names of humans nor did He ever answer prayers. Raphael thought God had abandoned His creations. However, God loves humanity more than the angels. Lucifer described humans as God's "pride and joy." Early in his time as Creator, He would send Michael, His most glorified archangel, to exact his wrath upon humans who had turned their back on Him and begun to worship angels. However, as Michael later realized, God's commands are not always straightforward. Sometimes they are a test to strengthen the character of his creations, angel and man alike. Physical Appearance God's true visage has only been seen by few beings. The Darkness and the Horseman Death has seen God, as they have all existed alongside God since the beginning of time. Ariel once mentioned that, out of all the Host of Heaven, only a handful of them, at least 7, have seen God; it is assumed she was referring to the archangels, including herself, as well as Michael, Lucifer, Uriel, Sariel, Raphael, and Gabriel. Oracle himself has also seen God, as he is God's very first creation and dubbed "The Original Angel". It is later revealed that Metatron, as The Scribe of God, has also seen God, while writing down his Word and said he "sat at God's feet", and Death has referred to conversations with God while talking to Sidney. Oracle also hinted that the angel Gadreel, as God's most trusted angel, has seen God, as Oracle said, "You were God's most trusted. That's why He chose you to protect the garden." It was said that Mia's Amulet can detect God's presence; however, Joshua thought otherwise, as it is believed God can only be found if he wants to. Often when God does intervene, it was done behind the scenes, without physical interaction. In addition, Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, has seen God. Who has seen God: This is the list of beings that have seen God. These include *Death (As the Pale Horseman and one who has been around as long as God) *Oracle (As the Original Seraphim Angel and God's first, oldest, and most powerful angel and very first creation) *Michael (As God's eldest and most powerful archangel) *Lucifer (As God's most beautiful and beloved angel and one of the archangels) *Ariel (As God's most compassionate child and one of the archangels) *Uriel (As one of the archangels) *Sariel (As one of the archangels) *Raphael (As God's strongest healer and one of the archangels) *Gabriel (As God's greatest messenger and the youngest archangel) *Metatron (As the Scribe of God) *Gadreel (As God's most trusted) *Jesus Christ (As the Son of God) Powers and Abilities As the Primordial Being of Light and arguably the most powerful being in the entire universe, God is a supreme being of divine light and grace and possesses an unimaginable amount of incalculable supernatural power equaling the other Primordial Beings, making him all-powerful, or omnipotent. His power and intelligence is superior even to His superhuman angels, as well as the rest of his creations. God is the limitless, all loving supreme creator of all life in Heaven and on Earth. He was worshiped by both ancient and modern humans as a supreme being in monotheism and polytheism. It is believed that God, like the Jesus, the Original Angel Oracle, Horseman Death, is one of the few individuals who can enter Lucifer's Cage without the rings of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Oracle has even said that God is "Strong enough to take on Lucifer – strong enough to stop the Apocalypse." There is no authority higher than Him, mortal or immortal. He is ageless and eternal; He was never created or born, He has always existed and always will exist. God is a spiritual being who exists outside of time and space, both of which He created. He is also all-knowing and all-wise, or omniscient. He knows everything that can be known or learned, and He never forgets. He is genderless, and considered male by almost all religions, but female by Holly Cleary. Sariel stated that "there is no god, but God". But other deities have been proven to exist. God is one of many deities, but is the only true original divine. God created the Universe (and practically everything residing in it), Earth, Time, Space, Matter, Heaven, Angels, Purgatory, Turok-Hans, Hell, Lucifer's Cage, and Souls with His bare hands all out of nothingness. The only beings that can match God's infinite power is Death and Amara. *'Top Tier Nigh-Omnipotence' - Being omnipotent and the most powerful being in the universe, along with Death and Amara, God is supremely powerful and can use every power to incalculable levels, making him essentially limitless and insanely infinite. God possesses all superhuman and supernatural abilities in existence. His powers are supreme over all other superhuman beings. He is both indestructible and invincible, His strength and speed are unlimited, His senses are unparalleled and he can perceive all things at all times and all simultaneously in perfect harmony. His status as a pure spiritual being makes him exempt from fear, hunger, fatigue, weakness, and flaw. He can heal all wounds and sicknesses and can release or purify souls from all negativity and corruption. His presence is brighter than a star and he is the master and a source of divine light. God is capable of creating anything. He creates the angels and souls with naught but a word or with His breath and holds authority over them. He holds the power to create worlds and fill them with life. He commands the heavens and the seas. He can take on any physical form of either a person, an animal, or as a flaming bush. He can cause death, famine, and plague, but He can also prevent or stop them at his will. He holds the key to death and can raise the dead with only a word. His voice shakes the universe and can kill mortals. His size is such that he can hold a whole galaxy in his palm. He commands space and time and can teleport as well as slow down, freeze, accelerate, or reverse aspects of time. He can trap angels inside human flesh and prevent them from using their full powers. God can basically and literately do anything He can think of, and is only somewhat limited by the combined might of his siblings. As put by Lucifer, "No one makes Dad do anything." Even when Michael, despite being the oldest of God's archangels, was (temperately) the King of Heaven, Death claimed that he was still no God. God has the ability to enter Lucifer's Cage without the Four Horsemen rings, as Mia incorrectly suspected it was God who got Sidney out, although God has the "muscle" to do it. The immensity of His power is shown by his ability to create multiple planes of existence, including Hell, Heaven, Purgatory and the whole physical universe with billions of galaxies. Oracle also said that God is "strong enough to take on Lucifer -- strong enough to stop the Apocalypse." The surface of His true power and potential has barely been scratched. He was also able to fight off His sister, Amara the Darkness, with the help of his Seraphim Angels. **'Reality Warping' - God's power is so great that reality shapes itself according to His will. By writing the Supernatural books, He decided the course of destiny, which Rayne and Mia would later actually experience exactly as predicted in the books. However, by giving them unaired Supernatural books, whose events haven't occurred yet, He allowed them to slightly change their predicted path. **'Supernatural Concealment' - God is able to hide His true identity from anyone. God was able to conceal himself from the Angels, even the ones who saw Him and would recognize His presence such as Raphael being entire unable to recognize Him. He was also able to conceal and hide Himself from even other powerful entities like Death and even the Darkness. However, Oracle has so far been the only one who can see and recognize Him in his presence. **'Conjuration' - Among others, God possesses the power to create anything and everything from nothing. He created Angels, Turok-Hans, Humans, as well as Earth, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and the Universe. Gabriel, God's weakest archangel, created realities with a snap, however as long as the Darkness was around, He could not create the physical and spiritual realms because the Darkness might have immediately destroyed it. ***'Creation' - He can create any and every form of life from nothing. Heaven, Angels, Turok-Hans, Earth, and the Human form are all His creations. In addition to life, He created the elements. He created man and woman, human and angel. He made them both in his likeness, similar but different; one mortal, the other immortal, one legged, the other winged, one mundane, the other celestial, one weak, the other strong. He chose the angels as His attendants to bring His word to humanity and enforce his law, and He chose the humans as His favored creation and children to be adored, protected, and pampered above all else. He also birthed the beasts of the Earth. ***'Entity/World Creation' - God created almost everything in existence. **'Supernatural Perception' - God can locate and perceive anyone in existence regardless of their method of hiding, instantly seeing through Ariel's attempts to cloak herself as she listened in on God and Oracle having a conversation. **'Supreme Strength' - God can physically overwhelm any being in existence. **'Shapeshifting' - God can take on any form He wishes. **'Apporting' - God is able to teleport anyone anywhere He wants in all of creation. For instance, He teleported Rayne and Mia out of Lucifer's presence, and onto an airplane. **'Teleportation' - God can appear anywhere in the universe, with only two other Primordial Beings working together being capable of stopping Him. **'Resurrection' - God can and is capable of reviving any being in existence, bringing anyone or anything back to life. Due to his lack of interaction or intervention however, he does not do this often. Though he is known to have resurrected Oracle at least once. **'Power Granting/Bestowal' - When God revived/resurrected Oracle after being killed by Michael, He granted the Original Angel greater power. He also created magic throughout creation, and gifted the angels with Holy Magic. **'Purification/Healing' - God, as the most powerful being in existence, can heal and purify anything, possessing the ability to heal any type of ailment. He displays this power by cleansing Rayne of the human blood that she consumed and again by curing Sidney and Nigel of the werewolf bites they got. *'Top Tier Nigh-Omniscience' - Existing since the beginning of time itself, God possesses absolute wisdom, understanding, and intelligence about the universe He made and everything He made, including the Future. God's knowledge has been described by Joshua knowing everything you could want to tell Him, as he once told the Team that, "He knows already -- everything you want to tell Him." God basically knows everything about everything and anything about anything. However, God may not know all, as Death claims neither one knows which one is older or even if they're the same age. Additionally, Michael, who in his attempt to get Oracle on his side, stated that He didn't, still doesn't, know the names of many of the humans He created, however this has not been confirmed. He was also not aware of Lucifer's future rebelling and only realized the Turok-Hans were a threat to the rest of creation after He created them. However, it was also stated by Lucifer that God is a master of strategy, and it's known that He managed to outsmart His sister - The Darkness - by tricking her into the Mark of the Outsider. Plus, He is showing to be able to hide from her as long as He wants to. This may ultimately prove God to be the wisest/smartest being to ever exist. **'Heightened Senses' - God possesses the same celestially aware senses as His angels. **'Celestial Perspective' - God is not bound by the five bodily senses and is cosmically aware of all beings both on earth and in the heavens. *'Immortality' - As being the first of the Primordial Being to exist in existence, God is immortal, eternal, an ever-existing being. Age, as well as any disease and weapon, is powerless against him. God is above age and disease, and as the Primordial Being of Light, He cannot die or be killed as long as Light exists. However, Death stated he can die, and he would reap God at the end of time. He did then go on to question "What makes you think I can do that?", questioning his earlier statement. When called out on it by Dean he adds, "Why should I?" The only other entity who might have the power to kill Him is the Darkness. **'Invulnerability' - God, as the most powerful being in existence, is entirely immune to damage, with only the other Primordial Beings being capable of harming Him, and only together being capable of killing Him. *'Omnipresence' - God is omnipresent, allowing him the ability to be spiritually present at everywhere and anywhere in existence at all times at once, in all places, times, realities and all things. This means he simultaneously exists at all places in creation, referring to an unlimited presence. Furthermore, he is most likely present in places beyond the universe. *'Omnilingualism' - As a Primordial Being, God can understand and utilize any form of communication. *'Omnibenevelence' - God is generally believed to be all loving. Despite this, various religious groups, angels, Lucifer and various main characters in the Supernatural universe would beg to differ. Creations File:Legion.20Wallpaper.204.jpg|Oracle, the Original Seraphim Angel File:Eimage.jpg|Seraphim File:Mark of the outsider by princessnami13-d5z8zk3.jpg|Mark of the Outsider File:Say_Hello_2_Heaven_by_americanpsycho.jpg|Heaven File:Gabriel_2007_andy_whitman_4_by_lord_iluvatar-d49mkp7_(2).jpg|Archangels File:WallFon.com_11547.jpg|The Universe File:Gqwhwcmgsvovcsl54aq1.png|Angels File:Terre.jpg|Earth File:Vampire_Priest.jpg|Turok-Hans File:Dark forest.jpg|Purgatory File:Crowd_shot.jpg|Humans File:Hsoutofbody.jpg|Souls File:547 7 Mordor FINAL.jpg|Hell File:Zirak-zigil Durin's Tower 1.jpg|Lucifer's Cage Being credited as "The Creator", God created the entire universe itself and practically everything residing in it. These include: *'Oracle': God's very first creation and the Original (Seraphim) Angel. *'Seraphim': The very first and greatest generation of all celestial beings, created after Oracle. *'Mark of the Outsider': The lock and the key of The Darkness' prison, as well as the very first curse. *'Heaven': God's divine dominion, for noble and righteous souls, as well as His angels. *'Archangels': The second greatest celestial beings. *'The Universe': Some time after God imprisoned the Darkness, God created The Universe. *'Angels': Collectively all species under this title that aren't archangels or seraphs. The soldiers of God. *'Earth': God's last masterpiece, according to Lucifer. *'Turok-Hans': The first and most rancorous beasts. *'Purgatory': God's prison for monsters, specifically the Turok-Hans. *'Humans': God's greatest and most beloved creations. *'Souls': When God created humans, He gave them a spiritual essence or a soul. *'Hell': God's prison for evil souls, demons, and Lucifer. *'Lucifer's Cage': God's prison specifically created for Lucifer. Weaknesses Even though God Himself is arguably the most powerful being in the entire universe and the creator of practically everything residing in it, even He Himself has weaknesses. *'Death's Scythe' - Death claims that he will use this scythe to reap God at the end of time. *'Oracle' - Even though God is the creator and father of Oracle, Death stated that Oracle is strong enough to fight God. *'Death' - As literally death itself and God's brother, he can kill God, and claimed that he eventually would. *'The Darkness' - As His twin sister and a Primordial Being just as old and strong as God, it is most likely that The Darkness can weaken, if not, even kill God. This is even further supported by God needing the aid of His Seraphim Angels to fight in a terrible war against The Darkness. Relationships God and Oracle "I love Oracle very much, Rayne. And I am very, very proud of him." Oracle is God's oldest son and very first creation. As His oldest son and very first creation, Oracle was God's closest and chief adviser before he disappeared from Heaven. Oracle is also very compassionate towards God. When God first created Oracle, He taught the angel how to control his nigh-omnipotent powers. To God, Oracle is highly loyal and follows his father's orders without a lot of question, seeing himself as "a good son", and that is one of the things that matter most to him. Oracle loves his father dearly and, despite having not seen or spoken to him in 200,000 years, despite casting Lucifer out of Heaven, and even despite creating the Turok-Hans, which he called his fathers "Greatest mistake", he never lost his faith or his love for the Lord. Even God Himself stated that Oracle is the only angel that knows His heart. God and Lucifer "No. No, I don't hate him. Not really. Lucifer was...the greatest archangel I ever created and I loved him more than any of my children. I still do. But what he had done was becoming a threat; and not just to me, but to Heaven, to the other angels, and to the rest of creation. I may have cast him down from Paradise because he rebelled and I may have locked him away in Hell because he cursed the Earth with evil, corruption, and sin, but I only did it because...I love him." Lucifer is God's third oldest son and the second eldest of the archangels. God loved Lucifer the most of all His angels, as he was His most beloved and most beautiful archangel. But when Lucifer defied God and led a rebellion against Him, God was forced to cast him down from Heaven out of worry of what Lucifer would do not only to His creation, but to then entire universe. Although God still loves Lucifer, He is very ashamed of and disappointed in him. God and Amara "It's not that I wanted to lock her away. I had too. I just had too. Amara is my sister and I love her just about as much as I love Oracle. But when I was forming creation, she became a threat. She threw the first punch before our war started. She forced me to lock her away. But had she not attacked and felt threatened by what I was making, I wouldn't have betrayed her in the first place. In-spite of what she is, I love her still. But she is still a threat...and she much be stopped." Amara is God's sister. Before the universe itself existed, Amara lived in harmony with God and the two of them were as inseparable as siblings could be. God loved His sister. However, when God first formed creation, Amara, due to her overwhelming instinct, felt threatened and attacked it. And after God created Oracle and the other Seraphim, He was forced to go the war with her. Though He couldn't bring Himself to destroy her, He instead locked her away. Now that she has been free, God realizes that He must intervene on things if He is to stop her. Although He still loves her, God informs she must be stopped. Category:Characters Category:Deities Category:Higher Beings Category:Primordial Beings Category:Strongest of the Species